Mickey really knows how to lay down that second line rhythm with a strong groove that just won't let you go! New Orleans music has been a favorite of Mickey's for over twenty years and he still gives it that spark of life. Hard hitting funky second line rhythms and earnest traditional New Orleans jazz is what the Hot Tamales are all about.

Although Mickey Bones has been the leader and drummer of the Hot Tamale Brass Band for the past fifteen years it has not been without help. The band has excellent charts for Mickey's favorite songs. The charts have been written by outstanding horn players such as Timo Shanko, Scott Shetler and Gordon Beadlle alias Sax Gordon.

Boston First Night Wrote

Thank you so much for all your efforts and help with the First night 25th Birthday Celebration in Copley Square. Everyone had a fabulous time and our board of directors along with the visiting First Night cities called it a great success. Much of the praise belongs to you and the Hot Tamale Brass Band. You guys were the hit of the party-kept everybody dancing and the festivities hopping! Once again THANK YOU from all of us at First Night. Talk to you soon.

BOSTON PHOENIX, Brett Milano wrote on Billy Ruane's 35th Birthday Bash at three clubs simultaneously, T.T The Bears, The Middle East and Green Street Grill

On Tuesday, you had to keep moving, through hallways that got crowded all the time, to catch the alternating 20-minute sets at T.T.'s and both levels of the Middle East(and sometimes the music moved with you, as the Hot Tamale Brass Band paraded through the clubs New Orleans style, adding a surreal element to the proceedings).

BOSTON GLOBE, David Wildman wrote

One of the most important lessons that Mickey Bones of the Hot Tamale Brass Band has learned in his years of show business he learned the hard way; If your group is performing in a parade with the Ringling Brothers elephants, you should never let them put you between the elephants and the food." Bones recounted;"The parade organizers said,'When we give you the signal, you start marching in front of the elephants and start playing.' But they were running them along at a pretty good clip, and in front of us was the cornbread and the water, that was what the elephants wanted. No one told us we were going to have to run for our lives. I turned around and saw this three-story-tall elephant coming at me"